I haven't used Google Maps outside of the US, but I've always felt that it's got to be designed and built by people that have never driven a car in their life. They've almost certainly never driven in Australia. Sometimes updates bring good things, and sometimes they declutter the screen by removing important information like the names of cross streets.

If it's regularly sending you down avoidable gravel roads, you really ought to use something different. I'm more or less happy with google around me, although I'm comfortable enough with my surroundings to recognize and ignore most of the bad ideas; otherwise, I'd try something from Here --- they're the corporate successor of NavTeq, and have been doing digital maps since the 80s, and I liked their maps on Windows Phone. Something based on openstreetmaps is also attractive from an ability to influence the data perspective, too.